Here’s the last of my weekend’s tying. Let me know what you guys think of them. The gray midge isn’t original in design but I hadn’t seen the color scheme before and thought it looked cool. The other is supposed to imitate a caddis larva (or maybe could work as an emerger?). It is actually green but comes out looking yellow in the photo. It didn’t quite turn out like I had envisioned it prior to tying. Something about the way the starling collar lays in relation to the body isn’t quite right with the bead head. Maybe I needed to use a hook with a longer shank? Let me know what you think.
Both flies will fish well, surely. I think I would like the fly with the Starling hackle better without the bead at all. The reason the hackle looks a bit off is the number of thread wraps behind the bead. The thread is pressing the hackle back against the body material.
Were they my flies, I’d fish them both with confidence.
I agree with REE… These will fish well… If the second fly were mine, I would’ve probably put more wraps behind the bead to lay the hackle down more… just my preference but they will both fish just like they are!
I know I could get the second fly to look a lot better without the bead but was wanting a weighted fly with some movement built into it. Whenever I use a bead with a hackle collar it just looks a little off, especially when using a scud or curved shank hook. Would it be better to put the hackle infront of the bead? If so I assume I would have to set the bead back just a little to give enough room to tie it in between the bead the the eye.
No… It’s a matter of preference… well actually it really doesn’t make a difference. The way you have it, the bead will continue to make the hackle flex every time you stop stripping… (when the bug falls) The other way The bead will support the hackle and keep it from flexing… Depends on what you want the hackle to do!
but they will both fish just like they are!